Vancouver, British Columbia

View from our hotel room in Vancouver

Spent most of last week in British Columbia, first at the URISA International Conference then up the Sunshine Coast a bit. Absolutely spectacular. Vancouver is just so vibrant and energtic. Lots of money pouring through there. For a metro area of 2.2 million it seems so much bigger - at least when compared to our American urban areas. The Sunshine Coast was a good side trip. Very quiet this time of year, one has to get away from the ferry terminus near Gibsons to get to the "good stuff", but the road north soon enters a fjordlike area of rocky coastlines, madrona and cedar forests, and convoluted bays. Spent a night at Camano Island in Washington on the way home - more great, though overdeveloped, inland salt water shorline.

Looking west toward Whidbey Island from Camano